[hrothgar]

Three favorite games outside of bridge are:

World of Warcraft
Settlers of Catan
Star Fleet Battles

[mike777]

Let us not forget Rotisserie Baseball. Drafts are coming up in a few weeks. Pitchers and Catchers have reported. .

[kenrexford]

Years and years ago, I used to play Axis and Allies. It was particularly frustrating at the end, for one reason. Curious if anyone knows the answer to this.

I decided to attempt an invasion through Gibraltar. The cost of entering Spain was calculated into the attack. I tried this about 20 times as a simulation (no computers -- just did it) and found this attack unstoppable. Was this a fluke or real? I find it odd, admittedly, that I still wonder about this. But, once I figured this attack out, no one wanted to play again.

[Rain]

Master of Magic

[Elianna]

Backgammon
Various board games, my current favorites being:
Alhambra
Citadels
Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot

[DrTodd13]

Backgammon
Chess
Arimaa
Sudoku (recently)
Go

Computer Games
--------------------
Rise of Nations
Age of Kings
Mechwarrior 4
MS Flight Sim

[Sigi_BC84]

I really saw myself speaking when reading Justin's post (except for maybe the "hard to beat" bit ;-). I gave up several games already because of addiction and being overwhelmed, sort of.

On the computer, my absolute, probably never to be surpassed, favourite is Dungeon Master. If you are into computer games and don't know this one, get a week off work and give it a try. Google for "Dungeon Master" and you'll find the encyclopaedia site which has got all the info (mind you it's a really old game but there's no comparison in terms of excitement and fun, none).

In real life I was totally into "Magic: The Gathering" with a bunch of friends, but gave that up because I didn't want to invest the time and money anymore. Anyway playing MTG was one of the best experiences in my life concerning games.

I also like other card games such as the German "Doppelkopf" and "Skat" but Bridge is by far the most interesting of all card games. Never got the hang of Chess, too hard for me and the games are too long. Haven't tried Go seriously although people keep trying to talk me into it.

Richard has mentioned "Settlers of Catan" which is a German game actually ("Die Siedler von Catan"), so no surprise I'm playing that as well (we got really competetive, setting up a small league and all; only the competitive types could bear to play with us, the others were pissed off really quickly by our attitude, those wimps... ;-)

At last I can recommend "Robo Rally" which has been rereleased shortly -- it's sort of tough to find opponents since the game is too complicated for many but I guess this won't be a big problem for the audience here :-).

Justin, if you care for another mindf*ck try the game "Set" in case you don't know it yet. Awesome.

--Sigi

[joshs]

Tiddlywinks.

[Echognome]

When not playing bridge or working, I'm usually coaching or playing football. I have to call it American Football over here. March-Early Sept I'm playing, October-March I'm coaching. I get very few Sundays off!

I like card games of all sorts. Before I learned bridge, I played Hearts, Spades, Euchre, Pinochle, Big 2's, and Poker. I've recently learned Barbu and enjoy that as well. I still think Bridge is the best card game.

[inquiry]

Board game -- diplomacy... best to play with wicked competitive people
and of course, chess.

[Winstonm]

Trivial Pursuit.
Backgammon.

[cherdano]

I play quite a bit of go. Simply the best game out there -- if there wasn't this card game combining analytical, psychological and partnership skills....

As a go friend pointed out to me: "Bridge is the only game we sometimes lose go players to."

Go and bridge is a completely different world, by the way, I could spent ages discussing how so and why.

Arend

[luis]

I played chess when I was a kid, now I play only from time to time.
Poker is nice.
Love Blackjack and Craps
About PC games I love Civilization
A popular card game here in Argentina is called "Truco" and I like it

[Sigi_BC84]

cherdano, on Mar 7 2006, 03:50 PM, said:

Go and bridge is a completely different world, by the way, I could spent ages discussing how so and why.

I'd be interested to hear some more.

--Sigi

[Walddk]

Cricket when I was younger; still umpiring though, and glued to the telly every time there is cricket on. I tell everyone who cares to listen (also those who do not):

God could have created a better berry than strawberry, but he did not. And God could have created a better game than bridge, but he did not!

Cricket is life; the rest is mere details.

Roland

[mgoetze]

I used to play Diplomacy, and got up to about 300th in the world rankings before I realized that it just didn't suit my talents very well (I suck at lying) .

I don't play quite as much Go as I used to, but am still active. One of the funny things about Go is, the better you get, the more you realize how much you suck at it.

I play Doppelkopf, the second-best card game in the world, in the German Bundesliga. Unfortunately, that is only 5 weekends a year, the rest of the year being spent playing with bad players and losing anyway because the luck factor is too high. There have been some experiments with duplicate Doppelkopf, but the results have been pretty random because you don't get to pick your partners.

I expect it is only a matter of time before I realize that I will never be any good at Bridge, either, and devote myself to the study of Tic-Tac-Toe.

And of course there are role-playing games, but those are a different category altogether...

[mgoetze]

Sigi_BC84, on Mar 7 2006, 04:29 PM, said:

cherdano, on Mar 7 2006, 03:50 PM, said:

Go and bridge is a completely different world, by the way, I could spent ages discussing how so and why.

I'd be interested to hear some more.

The two most obvious differences are: 1) Go is a game of complete information and 2) Bridge is a partnership game.

Bridge reduces quite quickly to something practically solvable (as in, you can finish an analysis of which line of play gives the best chances in finite time), whereas in Go, even top pros cannot make an absolute statement as to what the best move is until near the end. On the other hand, in Go, each game has the same starting state so it is easy enough to memorize some conventional wisdom to get you going, while in Bridge you are constantly challenged with new starting positions.

That's just scratching the surface, of course, and I guess anyone who plays both games will have personal feelings on the matter which are hard to put in words. Let's just say that playing each game is quite a unique experience, comparable yet not comparable.

Arend is quite a bit better than I am at both games and as such probably has more valuable insights.